Songstrains
by SophiaCrutchfeild
Summary: Welcome to all the creepy sonfics you can handle! Hope you like it, and don't think I made anyone TOO OOC. ;)
1. The Darkness

Author's Note- Welcome to the nightmares of Songstrains! Terror awaits, in the form of music-and-Gravity-Falls-based one-shots! First up- The Darkness, by Hardstyle.

_I can feel the cold hand of Death, and the end drawing near._

I know it is coming. We play with Death so much, my brother and I. Cold hands, cold smile… Death is like a snowflake, cold, but beautiful as well, and unique each time it comes. My brother thinks he is so dark, so brave, so much more a part of The Darkness that I, but he is, sadly, incorrect.

What's my name? What's my name? I'm just a silly little girl, right? Sparkles, glitter, fun… all of that leads as a façade toward the chaos that is Mabel Pines.

Remember, the end of the world is closer than the end of the summer.

_I've seen Gods of the men, and all, which they fear._

Oh, yes, Cipher, glowing men who appear to have a thing for little girls… actually, that's more disgusting than frightening. He guesses at our worst fears, he doesn't know them. He watches us (AHEM, stalker) all the time, so he can usually guess correctly, unless, like me, you put up an act constantly.

I terrify him. He always thinks he has me figured out, and then I do something he didn't expect. If he could read my mind, would I have been able to outsmart him at the Puppet Show? He wants to hack through my act, and see who I really am… and he's so scared of me when he can't.

_Sing to me songs of the Darkness!_

I sing quietly as The Darkness fills the town. There's no moon tonight. I slip out of the attic, and onto the roof. I notice that my voice carries. Cipher will see, of course, but either he'll become even more confused, or be too scared to come near. As I sing to The Darkness, The Darkness sings back to me.

I pull off my headband, and watch as my hair, ever so neat and tame in the daylight, now twists and writhes around my head. My teeth, ever so white, glow in the dark. My eyes are burning lights, attracting people, who, in a dreamlike state, have made their way over to hear my song. Not that they know it's me, of course.

It's funny. These people are so gullible, and so easily tricked. Pacifica Northwest herself heads the crowd that has sleepwalked towards my voice.

_Farewell to Heaven my friend._

I close my eyes and let The Darkness take hold of me. It burns, and glows, and licks at my heels like flames, and I laugh as I sing. This, this is what I live for. I love the sweet dreams and vicious nightmares of the people around me. I see them all… I love them like they were my own children.

Whoa. Hold up, _what?_ What is happening? Why am I on the roof? What's with all these people?

Never mind that. Never you mind, my darling, for your oblivion is all that keeps you from getting rid of me for good.

_Come to me; bury your sorrow._

Why do you think Mabel Pines is so optimistic, all the time? I'm not referring to myself of course, but to the Mabel Pines they all know and adore. She hands off her tragedies, her heartbreak, and her sorrow to me, and I gladly accept them. Emotions are so beautiful, and the darker they are, the better. If you think about it, the emotions I take are the ones these people want the least. I'm doing a public service, really.

_Temptation, await the condemned!_

Oh, dear, the sun is rising. I slip back through the window, and put the headband back in place…

…I wake up, feeling exhausted, as if I got no sleep at all last night. Why does this always happen, every new moon? Ah, well, nothing a few glasses of Mabel Juice can't fix!

_Sing to me songs of the darkness…_


	2. Anthem of the Angels

Author's Note: Warning! Really messed-up stuff! (C'mon, it's me, what do you expect, flowers and kittens?)

_White walls surround us; no light will touch your face again._

This sterile, lifeless room has been killing me. Why did you do it, you idiot? Why did you have to go after those creatures? They were killing people. You thought you could handle it. Well are you happy? Now the creatures are gone, and you're here in a coma. They're going to pull the plug if you don't wake up soon. Please wake up. Mystery twins forever, right? Just open your eyes, just give me that smile… please. Tell me I'm being stupid. Tell me you're fine. I don't care, just wake up.

_Rain taps the window as we sleep among the dead._

It's raining out. I guess I see why you want to sleep in. You always hated the rain. Aren't you going to complain about it? Aren't you going to wake up? Stan wants us to work the gift shop. You need to wake up. You know you can wake up now. I'll even cover your shifts, I promise. C'mon, up and at 'em. Please.

_Days go on forever, but I have not left your side._

Stan says I should go back to the shack, but I refuse. I won't go home without you. It's been two weeks, you know, since you… well, since this happened. I won't leave you. I'm terrified of what will happen if I do. I want to go home, but only with you. This is the worst feeling in the world. You said you would always be there for me… I'm here for you. Will you just wake up? This isn't funny.

_We can chase the dark together. If you go, then so will I._

The monitor suddenly begins to go nuts. I scream as it starts to flat line. Suddenly, time seems to stop as the world turns black and white.

_There is nothing left of you. I can see it in your eyes._

"Hiya, kid!" the yellow triangle knows as Bill Cipher laughs at my panic. "You look like you could use a hand!"

_Sing the anthem of the angels._

"Meaning?"

"I have a proposition for you! I can get that kid back up and on the go right now! It's better than what seems to be going on right now, right?"

"And for you?" I ask.

"On the house, kid," he laughs. I grab his hand and shake it.

_Say the last goodbye._

The world returns to normal, and your eyes snap open. You sit up. I immediately throw my arms around you. "You're awake! You're really awake!"

I pull away and shout, "Grunkle Stan!"

He comes running, and then sees you. I'm crying with happiness. He calls for a doctor.

_Cold light above us._

They let you out of the hospital. They couldn't explain it, but you seemed fine. It was like you were just taking an incredibly long nap, and then woke up. The fact that actual daylight is hitting your skin, as well as my own, make me feel like crying again. You don't really understand what's going on. To you, no time has passed. There's something off about your voice though… and you're walking funny… probably just after effects of the coma.

I can't hear you screaming at me to run away.

_Hope fills the heart and fades away._

You've been home for three weeks now, and something is terribly wrong. You never want to go out, you never want to do anything. You go through the motions, and when I suggest something you agree, but it's like you don't care about anything anymore.

It's like you don't care about me.

_Skin is white as winter as the sky returns to grey._

You look like hell. You're deathly pale, and your eyes are sunken. I cut myself on a bit of glass once, and I could have sworn you looked at my hand like it was a huge chocolate ice cream cone. Maybe I imagined it.

Every night I dream about you, screaming at me that I'm in danger, and need to get far away. When I ask what I'm in danger from, you point to yourself.

_Days go on forever, but I have not left your side._

Our parents let us stay in Gravity Falls while you 'recover.' Cipher visits me one day.

"So, what's up, kid?" he asks me. "You having fun?"

_We can chase the dark together. If you go, then so will I._

"You saved my twin. Thank you," I say. Bill Cipher just stares at me blankly.

"Really? No, 'Curse you, you evil triangle?' No 'What did you do?' I must say I'm disappointed."

"I don't think you realize what 'dead' means," I say. "It means 'never coming back.' It means 'gone forever.' Whatever you did… it's not perfect, but it's better than dead."

He rolls his eye. "Wow. You're even dumber than I thought. I swear you meat-sacks are a riot!"

_There is nothing left of you; I can see it in your eyes._

I turn around and see you behind me. I scream for a moment, looking at your eyes. Living eyes are strange things. I can't really describe them. I know, however, when one is absent. Your eyes were not alive. Your eyes held nothing of you. It was like when I saw a squirrel that had been hit by a car on the side of the road. Your eyes looked dead, like the squirrel's eyes were.

_Sing the anthem of the angels._

I start crying and you just watch, with those blank, dead eyes. You slowly start to smile. It's a hideous smile, full of malice and cold hatred. Something has changed. You aren't just passionless anymore. I think you're going to hurt me. You grab my arm and begin pulling me toward the gift shop.

_Say the last goodbye. I keep holding on to you but I can't bring you back to life._

You died in the hospital. You died, and you came back to try to warn me. Why didn't I run when you told me to? I should have known that bringing back the dead via demon was a terrible idea. I can't bring you back.

_Sing the anthem of the angels; say the last goodbye._

You pull me up the ladder to the roof, and drag me to the ledge. Then you turn to look at me. You're not human anymore.

_You're dead…alive… _

It's like Jennifer when she's possessed in Splatterhouse. It isn't you anymore. I can't handle this. How did I not realize that you weren't you anymore?

_There is nothing left of you. I can see it in your eyes. Sing the anthem of the angels; say the last goodbye._

You take a step towards me and whisper my name. Maybe you scream it. I can't even tell. I don't even care.

_I keep holding onto you, but I can't bring you back to life._

I wish you had told me about deciding to go after the creatures. I would have come with you. We might both be alive… now you're dead, and I'm about to follow you. You're going to kill me. Am I right?

_Sing the anthem of the angels. Say the last goodbye._

You slam your fist into my nose, and grab my wrist. You yank me towards the edge of the landing. I'm yelling and fighting like hell, but you're stronger than me, and my voice doesn't carry from this point.

_Sing the anthem of the angels. _

You try to throw me off the roof, but I grab you in desperation, operating purely on instinct by now. You fight me, and lose your footing.

_Say the last goodbye._

I brace myself for impact.

_Sing the anthem of the angels._


	3. Born Too Late

Author's Note: I know this isn't my usual style, but my mom listens to some really old music, and this song was just too good to pass up. Hope you like it!

Dipper glared at Wendy's newest boyfriend. It wasn't fair. Why did this keep happening? He knew that Wendy had a lot of boyfriends, but it drove him crazy that she would never like him that way, just because of his age.

_Born too late for you to notice me. To you, I'm just a kid you won't date._

Dipper groaned as Mabel began playing another one of her old records. These songs she had found had to be some of the most annoying ever. Could you think of a girlier band name that "The Poni-Tails?" Still, those opening lines did seem to coincide with what he was thinking.

_Why was I born too late? Born too late to have a chance to win your love._

Wendy laughed and tossed her hair as she talked with her new boyfriend, and Dipper silently seethed. It wasn't really fair. The boyfriend was smirking, and neither of them seemed to notice Dipper. Well, that may have been because Dipper was standing in the next room, out of their view.

_Oh why, oh why was it my fate to be born too late?_

"Hey bro-bro, do you like the new record I found?" Mabel asked. From directly behind him, causing Dipper to jump.

"Not really," Dipper said.

"Really? I thought you might relate to this song. Oh, well," she said, shrugging and leaving an embarrassed Dipper behind.

_I see you walk with another. I wish it could be me. I long to hold you and to kiss you but I know it can never be._

Wendy and the boyfriend suddenly stood up. "Not true!" Dipper heard Wendy say.

"Come on, you know it is. The kid's like some kind of pathetic puppy," Boyfriend laughed. His tone was pleasant enough, but Wendy seemed pretty upset.

_I was born too late for you to care. Now my heart cries because your heart just couldn't wait._

"Oh, shut up, Devon," Wendy said. "You know if you can't be nice about my friends…"

"He's twelve!" Devon cried. "I was just saying that he's-"

"Stop," Wendy said. "You're digging yourself into a pretty deep hole. I think you should leave before you make things worse."

Devon rolled his eyes and exited the Gift Shop.

_Why was I born too late? Born too late for you to care. Now my heart cries because your heart just couldn't wait. Why was I born too late?_

Dipper slowly entered the Gift Shop and saw Wendy glaring at the counter.

"Um, hey. What's going on? I heard yelling," Dipper said carefully.

"Oh, nothing. I just broke up with Devon," Wendy said casually. "He was getting boring, anyway."

_Why was I born too late?_

"Are you okay?" Dipper asked.

Wendy smiled at him. "Yeah, thanks for asking."

_Why was I born too late?_

Dipper smiled. "So, if you need to talk…?"

"I'm good. Hey, we still on for movie night?"

Dipper's smile widened. This was going much better than the last time Wendy had broken up with someone in his presence.


	4. Salvation

Author's Note: This was a request. I hope it lives up to your expectations.

_All alone, lost in this abyss, crawling in the dark._

She looks at the picture. It is a simple photograph, of her and the boy who she had once been able to turn to when she had no one else. They were smiling, and she recalled that it had been the first time she had really smiled in months.

She misses him.

_Nothing to wipe my longing clips, and I wonder where you are._

He went missing a few months ago. It was the scariest moment ever, getting that call. She looks out the window at the lightning storm, and wonders, is he out in that storm? Is he even alive? Where is he?

_Are you far? Will you come to my rescue? Am I left to die?_

He promised her that they would run away together. He said he would take he away from her abusive parents and her world of constant agony. He disappeared before that could happen. She lost her last hope of a life that included love.

_But I can't give up on you!_

No, she thinks. No, he's coming back for me. He's alive, and he's fighting to get back here, and he'll take me away. I can't give up on him.

He always finds a way.

_I feel you keeping me alive! You are my salvation!_

He is alive, and only about fifty yards beneath her feet. He was locked in a tiny cellar by her parents to die, months ago. They put a curse on him, so that he would die when the last person gave up on him ever coming back. He felt his life force drain each time someone stopped looking… but she still hasn't given up. Her belief in him is the only thing keeping him alive.

She's also the only person with a chance of finding him.

_Touch you, taste you feel you here!_

She can almost feel his life force, if she concentrates. She remembers how he was full of excitement and passion, and she remembers how it felt amazing just to be around him. Sometimes, in the library, near an old bookshelf, she can almost feel it, although she doesn't know why. She wonders if it's because of all the times he kissed her by that bookshelf, when he came here "to read."

_I feel you keeping me alive! You are my salvation!_

He feels when she's near as well, but the curse prevents him from making a sound. He hates it when he hears her crying. Sometimes she says his name, and asks where he is. "I'm right here! Just push away the bookshelf!" he shouts, but his voice is gone, and no sound comes out. He hates it most of all when her parents take her to the library for her Punishments, knowing he can hear every crack, every cry of pain.

_Hold me, heal me, keep me near!_

She cries for him every night, as she lies awake. He always knew how to fix her when she was hurt. He would always hold her in his arms as the sun rose.

_My heart will burn for you! It's all I can do!_

For a moment, they each have a moment of sync. They both know that the other one will try to rescue them. They both have hope. They both know that until that day, they will just have to believe.

_Salvation! Salvation!_

She can't stop thinking about him. Everywhere she goes memories flood her mind. Every memory is a stab, but also a reassurance. The boy who took her to the diner and taught her how to order so that you would get a decent meal, the boy who gave her his jacket and began dancing with her when it started to storm in the woods, that boy wouldn't abandon her. He was too strong to be dead, too smart. He was too loyal to leave her to die alone. He would come back to her.

Even if everyone else, including his own sister, thought he was gone for good, she knew better.

_Keeping me alive! Salvation! Keeping me! Salvation! Keeping me alive!_

He punched the wall and tried to scream her name as e heard her parents try to convince her to move on, apparently to some duke who was four years older than her and completely rotten. "He left you," they tell her. When she protests, they ring the bell. I know why she listens to that bell now.

It's sick. These people are sick. I have to get out of here, if only to save her before they kill me.

_Been out from under who I am and who I want to be._

She holds her notebook close to her body. She reads the message written inside the front cover. "Keep on dreaming. Remember that you are perfect the way you are. Never let anyone take that away from you." He signed his name underneath. It was his last present to her before he disappeared. She's filled the first half up with her poems, diary entries, drawings, whatever. She keeps it under her mattress, so that her parents never see it. The butler might, but he won't tell.

_I held you tightly in my hand. Why are we unraveling?_

She looked through the book. He'd been gone exactly six months today. She was trying to keep hoping, but doubt had been creeping into her mind.

He could feel it.

_Was it me? Will you come to my rescue?_

She begins crying, and starts writing. It's a letter to him. She wants to believe, and most of her still does, but she's started feeling like she's lying to herself.

_Did I push it too far when I turned my back on you?_

She goes into the library and reads the letter.

"I… I miss you. I want to keep hoping you'll come back, but I'm starting to think that maybe everyone else is right. I don't want to believe it. I don't believe it. You're too strong, and too smart to be dead. You didn't leave me… did you? I wouldn't have thought it before, but it's been six months since I last saw you. Six months is a long time. I love you, but… I really don't want to give up, so please, if by some magical force you're hearing this, please come back. At least give me a sign… Or I'll give up."

_I feel you keeping me alive! You are my salvation!_

She didn't give up yet though. He knows because he's still alive. He's screaming her name, and pounding on the wall, trying to make a noise, when suddenly, he feels something. A rattle, on the other side of the door. He pushes, and hears a thud.

_Touch you, taste you, feel you here!_

She spins toward the shelf and sees a book lying on the floor. The bookcase is moving. Only a tiny bit, but it is.

She asked for a sign. She got one. Hope soars in her heart, and she begins laughing, and she's crying. On the other side of the bookcase, he is experiencing the same feeling.

_I feel you keeping me alive! You are my salvation!_

He feels a rush of energy, and knows that she won't give up hope any time soon. Not after this.

_Hold me, heal me, keep me near!_

She feels confident as she falls asleep, and for the first time in six months, goes to bed smiling and has good dreams.

_My heart will burn for you! It's all I can do!_

They dream of the same thing. She opens the bookcase, and sees him, starved, tired, and beaten, but alive, and they run to one another, and he holds her in his arms.

When they wake up, they are hopeful.

_Salvation! Salvation!_

Pacifica looks at the bookshelf the next morning, and remembers her dream. She knows where she lives, and she knows that here, anything can happen. Dreams can come true.

_Keeping me alive! Salvation! _

She shakes her head. It wouldn't work… would it?

_Touch you, taste you, feel you, need you, give it all just to find you!_

He punches the bookcase, but can't seem to knock another book out. However, he hears something on the other side of the door. It's a noise he has been desperate to here for six months.

The screeching sound of a wooden bookcase being pushed across a stone floor.

_Hold me, heal me, I will find you!_

She gasps as the edge of a door is revealed. It's a rotten wood door, but it has heavy iron bars across it, holding it shut. She gathers her strength, and shoves the bookcase completely out of the way.

_Keeping me alive! You are my salvation!_

She struggles with the iron bars, but manages to send them crashing to the stone floor. She bursts into the room, and sees him. She begins crying and hugs him tightly.

_Touch you, taste you, feel you here!_

He holds her close and strokes her long blond hair. "It's okay, we're okay," he whispers. Then he realizes something. "You… you broke the curse."

_Our love will never die! You are my salvation!_

He brings her out into the library. "You saved my life, more times than you know," he told her. He explains the curse to her, and she begins crying fresh tears several times, remembering the times she had almost given up hope.

_Hold me, heal me, keep me near!_

"Can we leave this place?" she asks.

He smiles. "Yeah, we can. I'll explain what happened to my sister, and she'll help us out. Don't worry, I've been planning what we're going to do since I first got locked up."

_My heart will burn for you! It's all I can do!_

"I just can't believe it's you… Dipper," she says.

"It's me, Pacifica. I'm back, and I'm going to save you."

_Salvation! Salvation! Salvation! Salvation!_

They lean in, and kiss. It's soft, and sweet, and pure. Then, they leave the room forever.

_Touch you, taste you, feel you, need you! Salvation! _


	5. Echo

Author's Note: Yeah, I know. I'm bad. Bad Sophia! I really should have updated sooner. So, yeah, I hope this makes up for it.

_Hello? Hello? Is anybody out there? Because I don't hear a sound._

I wake up in the dark, and the first thing I notice is that I'm cold. It doesn't feel like the normal cold of my house, either. It feels… wrong. It hurts. It hurts, and I can't figure out where I am.

I get up, and the ground is cold, and feels like stone. Not clean stone either, more like a gritty, dirty slab of rock in the woods. This isn't the woods though. There aren't any sounds. There's always some sound in the woods.

"Hello?" I call. "Hello?"

_Alone. Alone, I don't really know where the world is, but I miss it now._

I begin moving around, trying to get my bearings, and I feel the ground begin shaking underneath me. For a second, light flashes around me, and I see that I'm standing on a platform, with a deep pit underneath me, and solid ground about 5 feet over my head. It's an unnatural place. I can't remember how I got here. I just want to go home.

I decide that maybe I should lie down for a while, and try to fall back to sleep…

_I'm out on the edge, and I'm screaming my name, like a fool, at the top of my lungs!_

It's been a while now. Every hour the light flashes, and by counting the flashes, I've been on this… thing, for a week. I see the light flash, and I run to the edge of my platform, and I scream. I keep screaming, at first just sound, then I begin crying about how I don't understand what's happening, and finally it's just my name, over and over, so I don't forget the sound of it.

_Sometimes when I close my eyes, I pretend I'm all right… but it's never enough._

I lie down and try to picture my home… a few memories I cherish… but the biting cold, and the hard stone keep me condemned to this reality, even though this reality makes no sense at all.

_My echo, echo is the only voice coming back._

I scream for someone, anyone, and listen for a voice, but all I hear is my own, echoing off the walls of the pit.

_Shadow, shadow is the only friend that I have._

At least I can make out my shadow now. My eyes have adjusted to see the vaguest outlines… I talk to my shadow sometimes. It doesn't talk back, of course, but… I just want to talk to someone, and nobody's here accept it and me.

_Listen, listen, I would take a whisper if that were all you have to give._

I just need someone's voice, I just need to touch someone's hand… it's been a month, I think. I haven't slept. I haven't had any food, or water. I don't know what's going on with that. I don't care. It isn't like I don't live in the weirdest town in America… or do I? If I'm right, then I don't exactly "live" anywhere anymore… but that's impossible. I would know, right? I would remember.

_But it isn't, is it? You could come and save me! _

I don't think that they would look for me. It's not like anyone ever really cared about the teen boy with the crazy stories. They could find me. I would be home now if they were looking for me.

_Try to chase the crazy right out of my head!_

No, I was a nuisance. A burden. They thought I was out of my mind, and gave me drugs that made everything fuzzy and made me docile. It wasn't fair. I could see things that they pretended they couldn't. I wanted to… I don't know, but let me just say that I think I might really be crazy now. I wasn't before, but how about you try going through 17 different shrinks, countless drugs, a few stints in a psyche ward, and parents who hate having to deal with you? See if you make it out of that sane.

_I'm out on the edge, and I'm screaming my name, like a fool, at the top of my lungs! Sometimes when I close my eyes, I pretend I'm all right, but it's never enough. _

It has been three long months, alone, in the dark, in the silence. I don't know how I'm still even minimally sane. It's weird, you know. I've tried jumping off the edge of the platform, but I always land only a few feet below, on an identical platform that wasn't there before, and when I feel for my old one, or look for it in the flash of light, it's gone, and I don't appear to have moved. Escape is futile.

_My echo, echo is the only voice coming back. My shadow, shadow is the only friend that I have._

I miss her so much. She always believed me. She was the one who helped me when I was hurt by some monster, or attacked by an animal, or when I was lost in a cave. I picture her in my head, and I imagine for a second that I'm at home. For a moment, I'm not cold anymore. I hear the wind whispering through the trees, and feel the sun on my face. It's as if I'm in the woods, on a beautiful summer day.

Then I open my eyes, and it disappears.

_I don't want to be down, and I just want to feel alive and get to see your face again!_

I curl up and pull my knees toward my torso, and I cry.

_I don't want to be down, and I just want to feel alive and get to see your face again!_

I think very hard about what I want. I think of a dog, a big one, to be close to, and to keep me company. I can picture it. Then, I open my eyes, and… there it is, just as I pictured it. I can see it, too. It's emitting a kind of strange light.

_Until then… just my echo… my shadow… you're my only friend!_

"Shadow," I say. Perfect. This dog will be my shadow. I smile, and pet it.

_I'm out on the edge and I'm screaming my name like a fool at the top of my lungs!_

I shout my name, and I imagine stones falling into place, leading me up to the solid ground. It' weird, but they do. "Come on, Shadow," I call the dog, and I begin climbing the stairs…

_Sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm all right, but it's never enough!_

I climb up, and find myself in a black and white landscape, completely flat and barren. I close my eyes, and picture my house, and suddenly it's there. I go inside and see everything, as it was left but nobody's home. It occurs to me that this might just prove my theory.

_My echo, echo… oh, my shadow, shadow…_

This is the Dreamscape. I can do what I want to here, but I'm alone. I know why.

I'm not alive anymore, am I?

_Hello? Hello? Is anybody out there?_


	6. Missing

Author's Note: This is dark. This is not a fluffy thing. It's really not something to read for fun. That aside, I'm kind of proud of this one. So, read, don't read, whatever.

_Please, please forgive me, but I won't be home again._

I look at my sister's sleeping form, and I feel terrible for what I'm about to do. She'll be better off without me, but it still hurts to think she's not going to know who I am.

It's better if she remembers none of this.

I shouldn't have told our parents about our time in Gravity Falls. They put me on pills and therapy to get me to stop seeing the monsters. I heard them say they were going to do the same to Mabel. That's why I'm erasing my family's memories of me.

_Maybe someday you'll look up, and barely conscious, you'll say, "Isn't something missing?"_

I take the memory gun, and type the words "Dipper Pines" into it. I aim… I can't do it. Not to her.

I go into my parent's room, and zap them both while they sleep. They won't know me when thy wake up, but that's fine; I don't know them either.

I go back into my sister's room, and I adjust the setting from full erasure to a simple cover. I can't take her memories of me away completely, even though I know I'm being weak, and selfish. I should change the setting back… but instead I simply aim, and fire.

Then, I grab some cash from my parent's bedside, buy a bus ticket, and get on a ride to Gravity Falls.

_You won't cry for my absence. I know you forgot me, long ago._

I told Stan what I did, and he agreed to pretend that I was his kid. After several months, summer comes, and long with it, my sister.

"Hey," I say to her, when she first arrives at the shack door. I wait for her reaction, but she just looks me over, and looks slightly confused.

"Do I know you?" she asks.

"I'm Dipper Pines? Stan's kid?" I say, but it comes out a question. Will she or will she not believe the lie.

"Have we met?" she asks me, looking at me in this weird way. "I… I think I saw you in a dream of mine."

I shake my head, but it hurts me. "If we did, I would remember it." Not a lie. I remember her perfectly well. "I have a good memory."

She shrugs, and walks past me.

_Am I that unimportant? Am I so insignificant?_

The next few weeks, she barely says a word to me. She gives me odd looks sometimes, and once or twice she's told me that I look really familiar, but aside from that, we only coexist in the attic.

_Isn't something missing? Isn't someone missing me?_

I hold the memory gun in my hands late one night. Her memory is still stored in it. I could probably figure out how to give it back. Maybe. I can't do that though. Having those memories would just make her look crazy to our… her parents. They're not my parents any more.

_Even though I'm the sacrifice, you won't try for me, not now._

A few days later, I come up to her. "We need to talk," I say.

She looks a little confused. "Why?"

I get it. I haven't really spoken to her much. I feel too guilty, and too worried that she might see something she shouldn't, and our parents will do to her what they did to me.

"Mabel, you know how you keep saying we've met before? You're right."

I leave it at that though. I don't know why. I just leave the room.

_Though I'd die to know you love me, I'm all alone._

She never asks about it again though. She probably thinks I'm off my rocker. Maybe I was being stupid to not use the full erasure switch, and leave myself with this torturous "hope."

_Isn't someone missing me?_

I tell Stan about it, and he just gives me a sad smile. "I know kid. She's your twin, and she doesn't recognize you. That's got to be tough."

Then his face pales. "Mabel, sweetie, how long have you been standing there?"

_Please, please forgive me, but I won't be home again._

She looks at me. "You're… you're not my cousin…"

"No," I whisper.

She grabs the sides of her head. "No! I… this isn't right! You're insane! My parents never had another child!"

I look at her. "You're right. They didn't. It's all perception, and if that's the case, then you're parents never had another kid. You don't have a brother. It's your choice whether you want to remember or not."

_I know what you do to yourself._

"I… no. I'm sorry Dipper, but I like how things are. I don't need complications, like a twin brother who was erased from my memory. No."

_I breathe deep and cry out, "Isn't something missing? Isn't someone missing me?"_

She makes Stan erase this evening from her mind. We tell her she was tired, and went to sleep early.

"I'm sorry kid," Stan says when she leaves the next week. "I really thought for a second there…"

_Even though I'm the sacrifice, you won't try for me, not now. _

"Me too. I mean, the Mabel I know…"

"The Mabel you knew had you growing up," Stan reminds me.

_Though I'd die to know you love me, I'm all alone. Isn't someone missing me?_

A few more months go by. Gravity Falls High is a good school, and I'm well liked. Weird. That would never have happened in Piedmont. The thing is, I can't really even enjoy it. Sometimes I still think Mabel will be next to me when I turn my head. It's been a year since she forgot me, but…

Then something very weird happens.

_If I bleed, I'll bleed knowing you don't care._

I'm fighting this Giantula when I hear a voice. Her voice.

"Dipper?!"

I spin around, and the Giantula takes the shot and bites me. I scream, and for a moment I think I hear her crying…

_If I sleep just to dream of you I'll wake without you there._

I feel like I'm half-awake sometimes, but I know that's impossible, because my sister is there, crying, telling me she changed her mind, and Stan's brother helped her get her memories back… Blah, blah, blah, I thought I was more creative than that.

_Isn't something missing? Isn't something…?_

The dreams-that-feel-like-I'm-awake get more and more clear, until one day I open my eyes and see her asleep in a chair near my bed.

"Is it…?" I whisper in a horse voice. I glance down and see a huge gaping wound in my torso, covered in bandages and… scratch'n'sniff stickers?

_Even though I'm the sacrifice, you won't try for, me not now. Though I'd die to know you love me, I'm all alone. Isn't someone missing me?_

I speak up. "Mabel?"

Her eyes open, and she smiles. It's her real smile. "Dipper?"


	7. Troubled Minds

Author's Note: Yeah I'm crazy. What's your point?

_Off she trots to the psychiatric hospital. _

She giggles as she stares out the window of the van. She stops giggling when she sees the sign of where she's going.

**William Sloan Memorial Psychiatric Hospital**

_All she's got is the memory of a girl who used to laugh a lot._

She recalls playing games with her friends, flirting with boys, fighting monsters with her brother… that last bit is what landed her in here. She remembers having fun, and never letting it cross her mind that her reality was different from that of those around her.

_Now she's very angry because they say she's lost the plot._

An orderly brings her to a tiny room, and she hits him. She struggles to get back to her family, screaming "Please, don't send me away! I'm not crazy!"

_She's laughing in the mirror at her paper dress…_

She only had a small mirror, but it's enough to see her dress. She wears clothes made of paper. She's a "danger to herself and others… mostly others." That's what the doctors say. Well, she might not have been crazy when she arrived, but she sure is now!

_She has a troubled mind, a troubled mind…_

She strikes the mirror, and laughs. She has made a hairline crack only… but it's something.

_Rosie Black, she walked in here wired up on crack._

In the next room over, a girl whose name is unknown abides. The doctors called her "Rosie," because she came in with a yellow one in her pale hair. She was left by herself in the atrium, completely stoned. When she came out of her haze, she began whispering about being haunted, and ringing bells…

_It's for the kids who have low self-esteem; they have no concept of reality._

Rosie consistently whispers strange things that make her nurses nervous. She says she's wrong, and constantly ends her speeches with the words, "I shouldn't have disobeyed." The doctors believe she was tortured into complete derangement.

_They live their lives inside a fantasy, because they have troubled minds, troubled minds._

The doctors would be surprised to know that the two most incurable girls in the hospital knew each other… and all their most insane patients had the same help for their strangeness.

_Wipe the white golden dust into these broken hands._

He visits them on a regular basis, and he helps them. He gives them golden powder that brings them together in the mindscape.

_We must depend on a friend that will understand._

They say he understands them, and the doctors don't know how their patients all seem to have the same visions of the disturbed boy that the hospital was named for. "William helps us," they say. "William is our friend."

_Like the glitter making love to the gleam…_

The girl with the paper dress smiles as Rosie whispers to her through the wall about their mutual friend… another resident of the hospital.

_Just remember, things aren't always what they seem…_

It's the line that the children whisper to each other through the thin walls of their drafty rooms. It seems to comfort them, making them believe they aren't out of their minds.

_Peter Pan could not admit he had become a man, so he smashed the mirror into a million bits._

The boy they call Peter has a strange hatred of mirrors. He whispers the words "I cry in the rain" to himself, over and over, and screams at nothing quite often.

_Now all he seems to do is stare and sit, painting pictures of a life he'll never find._

He paints with anything he has… water, fruit… he even managed to get at his own blood, once. They didn't allow forks in his room after that.

_It's not inside his troubled mind, troubled minds._

He paints his images on the walls, and laughs. The insanity had been taking him for a long time before anyone noticed.

_There's a sweet little guy called Mars._

A boy with the given name Mars resides in the final room of the "incurable" wing.

_Each night he cries, this isn't the place I'm meant to be. _

He doesn't belong here, and he knows it. He is one of the sanest people in the town, and he also knows that being too sane will get you tossed away as easily as being off his rocker, the way his sister has become. He might be the most troubled in the hospital.

_He hides his dreams deep within a wooden box, and he hides his secrets deep within his woolen socks._

He hides everything, and he never speaks a word to any nurse, doctor, or orderly. He only whispers to the others. He only speaks aloud to one: William.

_Life will pass him by inside his troubled mind, troubled minds!_

They know about each other, and the minds, each more disturbed than the last, all meet with each other quite a bit. They are the only ones who know.

_Wipe the white golden dust into these broken hands!_

William helps them survive. He knows their pain better than anyone. He knows how to get rid of it, too.

_We must depend on a friend that will understand!_

The pain is gone, and they are so happy they could cry. They stay together, and they are at peace.

_Like the glitter making love to the gleam…_

Rosie smiles at Mars, and for a moment, the disturbed children are simply children, laughing together in the Mindscape.

_Just remember, things aren't always what they seem._

Then the dust wears off, and they really do cry this time.

_We will kill for the dust we need to fill these hands!_

When William asks them to do something for him, and says they will escape the hospital, the children agree instantly. They do as he says… anything he says.

_We can't depend on a friend who will understand._

When they step into the sunlight, they are struck by what they have been through, and what they have done.

_Hate the glitter we have murdered the dream._

They run, and the girl in the paper dress is giggling again. The strangeness has been unleashed. Soon, they will pay for locking the children up.

_Just remember, things aren't always what they seem…_

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**


	8. Blackboard

Author's Note: This one is a really good song, and it was just begging to be added to this fic! It was recommended for this fanfiction a while back, actually. I hope it meets everyone's standards!

_The tears I cried for you that day are like the tears I cry today!_

I'm going somewhere… where? I remember every detail… but the big pictures are fading to nothing. I smile as I lose myself in the insanity for a moment.

_The pain I feel inside reminds me that I'm living every day!_

It hurts to fight for my life. It hurts to stay sane. I forget everything eventually, so why am I not forgetting her? I want to forget her. She is what is keeping me tied to the earth. She is what is keeping me tied to my sanity.

_The thoughts of you that fill my head go round and round like yesterday. _

I can't stop thinking about her: her smile, her eyes, her laugh… Why am I thinking about her? I thought I could get her out of my head! She's gone! I have to forget it!

_All the love I feel for you will bring me through another day!_

Still, the pain is keeping me from disappearing into Him. I want to stay me. I shouldn't want to. I still do.

_Yeah!_

I hate myself. I hate Him even more. He is the reason she's gone. I'll take him down, and keep fighting him as long as I can. I think back to a long time ago, before I ever met her, or even Him.

_All around, there are people telling me who I should be._

I was all by myself. Nobody really cared. Everyone wanted me to be a jock, and Christian, and blah, blah, blah. When I didn't conform, they tortured me. Hmm, I don't think it's any shock that I turned out weird.

_I hate to disappoint you, but these are the colors that I see!_

I broke away, and basically proved how powerful I could really be. I changed reality. I became Him, and the tables were turned. It stayed like that for a long, long time.

_If there's just as many colors as there are human beings, then maybe I'm just colorblind and missing out on everything!_

Then I met her, and I began to feel human. This girl could see everything, where I saw nothing. We both were at opposite extremes. Neither of us saw things like everyone else, though. She showed me how to see everything. It was incredible.

_Without a word, I'm watching as my life keeps passing by._

Then she was gone, and everything went back to being nothing… but I had already seen everything now! I needed everything! As the days pass, now, it's all a blur, falling in and out of insanity, trying to see everything again.

_Desperately I'm reaching for the day's I've left behind!_

I try to re-create my time with her, and remember seeing everything, but now, almost all of it has faded to black.

_No matter what I try the colors won't collide!_

I can't find anything that is even close to what she gave me. I think I loved her, and I think she loved me. She was the only person to ever make me feel anything besides simple amusement, when I would make them deals, and that was never anything different than what I would do with anyone else.

_Painting on a canvas of the scars I tried to hide!_

I take a form for the moment, and it's the form I was in when I was with her. I am lingering in the woods where I spent so much time with her, and I begin running. I feel the annoying water that often leaks from my eye when I come here.

I quickly transfer to the dreamscape.

_I take the dreams that live inside my heart, and splash them across the nightmares in my head!_

I flying into the insanity, but this time, it's the insanity of my emotions, instead of the numbness that I often succumb to. I begin screaming, and flinging my wildest, most insane imaginings everywhere, and it's a calamitous cacophony of things that make no sense. Dreams, nightmares, everything is here.

_With trembling hands I try to draw the person that I wish that I could be!_

I begin imagining how I was for the year I was free of my demons, and with her. I was a good man, and I was smart, and in love. It was the best year. I want to be that man again.

_The feeling of your fingers on my skin, it lingers even after all these years! _

I remember very clearly the fist time I showed her the demon forest. She was so excited by it, and I can almost feel her arms flung around my neck, even after so many years have gone by, and I touch the spot her fingers lay, with a smile as I relive the memory.

_It's the only color that remains inside my heart!_

I can see nothing, but I can still see her in my mind's eye. She is the color I see.

_Every time I try to look into the shadows of your eyes, I feel that somewhere deep inside, another light within me dies._

I've tried to see other girls, but it always feels like a horrible betrayal, and I feel sick, and end up hurting the girls. I don't mean to. I just can't love anyone but her, and when I try to, and fail, they end up hurt.

_Every time I try to solve the mysteries hidden in your hands, another hint is washed away, lost inside the hourglass._

Whenever I try to find her, I end up lost. I always end up further away than I was before, and it's torment worse than anyone has inflicted on me. For some reason, I can't hate her for it though. I can only love her.

_With each breath, your memory fades to grey, and losing hold you try to find the way._

Every moment I can remember a little less of her, and I'm glad for it. I should forget her. I need to forget the mortal, human girl who momentarily had me feeling. Why do I feel more and more emotion as she fades? Why do I cling to every memory?

_Now alone again as silence falls, the only sound is my laughter!_

For a moment, I let the numb insanity take me, and I hear His laughter. Someone must have erred, and let him win. That is what mortals do. She was mortal. I can't be hung up on some mortal. Soon, the other insanity, the emotion-insanity, takes ahold.

_I take the dreams that live inside my heart and splash them across the nightmares in my head!_

I see the robed people around me, and I recognize one of them. Her brother?

I laugh, and let the cataclysmic effect cause it's destruction, with the red juice inside humans flying everywhere, but I don't attack her brother. He lowers his hood and says "William? It's me, Dipper?"

_I close my eyes and try to change the person that I know that I've become!_

I shakily shift into the form I was in, the boy he knew. "I know it's you," I say. "That's why they're all dead, and you are not."

He smiles nervously. "Yeah… I should have put that together."

_The echo of your words inside my mind, it lingers even after all these years!_

"I just… I want you to know that she's okay. She made it out alive, and she's been looking for you," he tells me. "She really loves you, you know," he adds.

How many times did she say she loved me? It echoes in my head.

_I pray that it will never fade inside my broken heart!_

"She's alive?" I ask, in a broken voice.

"She's alive," Dipper confirms.

_With each breath, your memory fades to grey, losing hold you try to find the way!_

"Where is she?" I whisper.

"Last I heard, Gravity Falls," he tells me, smiling.

I'm an idiot.

_Now alone again as silence falls, the only sound is my laughter!_

I grab his arm, and transport us both to the Mystery Shack, and I look around.

"Where is she?" I ask, excited, and amazed.

Then, a very old man comes out, and does a double take. "Will?"

"Stan? You're still hanging around here?" I ask.

He nods, and I laugh.

"So where's Mabel?" I ask cheerfully.

"Um, I think she's in the woods," he says, still in shock. I turn and race toward the woods.

_I take the dreams that live inside my heart and splash them across the nightmares in my head!_

How is she alive? I wonder. How did she survive Him attacking her like that? I didn't see what happened, but when He told me she was dead…

I see her sitting in the clearing. She is whispering something.

"Please come home, William. I forgive you. I love you. Please."

"Mabel?"

_With trembling hands I try to draw the person that I wish that I could be!_

She turns, shocked, and I see her face is slashed with three long scars, and she has huge burn scars across her left arm, and both legs.

"What happened?" I ask.

She looks down. "Well, you didn't actually kill me…"

The horrible realization sinks in. That is how He fooled me. He really thought He _had_ killed her.

_The feeling of your fingers on my skin, it lingers even after all these years._

She gets up, and throws her arms around me. "I'm okay, William. I'm okay." I hold her close. "I will never let Him hurt you again," I tell her. I have to do this.

_It's the only color that will never change inside my heart!_

"I'm so happy to know you're not dead… I will never stop loving you, but I need to leave. I can't see everything again. I have to leave while I can still stand to."

She hits me. "Nope, not sorry. You are _not _leaving me to 'protect me' _again._ I won't allow it!"

I smile as I rub my face where she punched me. "Well… sure, why not?"

I will never stop loving this girl.


End file.
